Join the Urban Photo Collective!

Note: The following blog post is by Fokko Muller, a street photographer inThe Netherlands. Check out the awesome Urban Photo Collective he is a part of, and join in on the fun!

Urban Photo Collective

The Urban Photo Collective (UPC) started almost 5 years ago in the city of Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The founder Thamar Kiemel (@thamar) was taking urban shots in Rotterdam with a friend. The idea arose to do that more often with a group of people. Just because it’s fun to go on the streets and photograph together.

At this moment the Urban Photo Collective has more than 250 members spread over 8 Dutch cities:

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Arnhem, Tilburg, Groningen and Emmen.

Each month a group of passionate photographers join to take photos in their city according to a collective theme.

Urban Photo Collective

We only have one requirement to participate: the passion for photography.

Urban Photo Collective is open-ended. You can join a photo meeting every month or once a year. No obligations. It’s free, the organizers are all volunteers. Themes are chosen democratic nationwide once a year. Each organizer chooses the location and interprets the theme for his own city.

Some themes for this year: Speed, Religion, Minimalism, Point of view, On Stage.

Theme: Urban Exploration – Urban Photo Collective

Our ambition is to inspire each other in the world of urban and street photography, learn, help each other, have a lot of fun and enjoy photography. And most of the time we end up in some pub after a meeting :)

We are urban-minded. It’s not all about street photography, but the urban character is often a guarantee for beautiful street photos.

Theme: Bio Diversity - Urban Photo Collective for Street Photography
Theme: Bio Diversity – Urban Photo Collective

There is no judgment of photos. If you want you can share your photos on Flickr and give comments or favorite pictures. We communicate via internet, Twitter, Flickr and other social media.

I don’t know if you have these kinds of groups in the USA, probably you have. I think it is great to do.

I have members in my group that made only photos of landscapes before they joined the Urban Photo Collective. Now they like to shoot on the streets and they have pushed their limits.

Theme: Urban Events - Urban Photo Collective for Street Photography
Theme: Urban Events – Urban Photo Collective

We like to promote this kind of urban/street photography in the rest of the world so people can discover the beauty of the streets in there city. In my opinion you don’t have to live in a big city like Los Angeles, New York or Amsterdam. Of course there is more activity in those cities but even in a smaller city you have streets and people and people with cameras.

Do you like to start a group in your city and join our Urban Photo Collective, please contact us at urbanphotocollective@gmail.com

Links to the Urban Photo Collective website and Flickr:

Website (Dutch): www.urbanphotocollective.nl/

Nationwide Flickr group: www.flickr.com/groups/urbanphotocollective/

Flickr group city of Emmen: www.flickr.com/groups/emmenurbanphotocollective/

The writer:

I live in the North of The Netherlands in the city of Emmen. Because it was a lot of travelling to join meetings in the other cities I started to organize meetings myself in March 2010. From that moment on I discovered my passion: street photography.

I have taken photos of landscapes, macros, portraits, you name it, but nothing can be compared with the dynamic and excitement of street photography.

I think it’s in the genes, my son Sven Muller is the organizer of the city of Groningen: http://www.urbanphotocollective.nl/groningen